Iron Lore: Malhavoc's Surprise?

[Andor]

Butt-Kick Fu

So is unarmed combat an explored option?

 

[Felon]

Mike, as a DM I'm interested in the arcanist class. Did any particular characters from literature or film inspire you and form the basis of what an arcanist should be capable of (and not capable of)? Would Gandalf qualify as a high-level arcanist?

 

[woodelf]

Armor and Damage Reduction - This I like in theory, but contrarily to what Mr Mearls says, I believe it will slow game play down. It might not if the dm just rolls damage and lets the player roll his d4 or whatever, adjust the damage, and go on with play, but in my experience, whenever someone is rolling a die for any reason, play grinds to a hault while everyone watches breathlessly to see if Joe takes 5 or 6 points of damage.

I'm not sure to what degree this applies, but let me toss out an observation:
1: Darn near every RPG i've played other than D&D3E (and some other D20 System instantiations) has armor that reduces damage in some way, sometimes instead of, sometimes in addition to, affecting the chance to be hit. Many of these have random or "active" DR.
2: Darn near every other RPG i've ever played has faster combat than D&D3E.

So DR is not inherently slower than other methods, IME. And may, due to other changes to accomodate it, be faster.

Skills Matter in Combat - Again, in theory this sounds cool, but 3e combat is slow enough already. This just seems like more ways to slow it down further. Cool ways, maybe, but still.

As someone else said, it's not so much the slowness of D&D3E combat that is a problem, as the tediousness. In theory, this will fix that.

 

[BryonD]

So is unarmed combat an explored option?

Godd question!

Probably not one that will be answered yet......

But a very good question.

 

[GravyFingerz]

More questions answered, more questions asked.

I am definetly buying this book! You just sold a copy Mr. Mearls ...

and a bunch of others I imagine.

(bump, because nobody touches sockbaby!)

 

[nopantsyet]

Yeah--sounds very interesting to me. I like what I'm getting of the feel of the system. And the fact that they're attempting to balance against MM creature is very positive. I hope it will be possible to use this in conjuction with standard D&D. I'm sure it's not designed for that, but I've had good success using some aspects of Arcana Unearthed in my game. I prefer to supplement rather than replace.

I'd rather find a way to make an idea fit the ethos than restrict the players to my original vision, so I am careful about what I disallow. Not much is categorically disallowed. Going through the exercise of finding a place in the world for a concept is an enjoyable creative challenge. and it helps me develop the world in ways I might not otherwise have done. I run a scarce magic campaign, but scarcity does affect PCs access to it--they're assumed to be extraordinary.

I know at least one of my players would jump that the chance to run a more nuanced fighter-type, so I'll probably try to find a way to balance it against the rest of the party if it doesn't balance inherently

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The changes to skill acquisition are what have me most excited.

I have two burning questions out of that:

How will your options for picking up skill groups be limited? I think we have some clue for that in the character write up earlier, but I'm still curious.

Will there be a way to 'cast defensively' to avoid attacks of opportunity on some actions?

I presume so given the use of skills in combat, and I look forward to seeing which skills offer which AoO avoidance options.

 

[SixFootGnome]

Iron Monk-y?

So is unarmed combat an explored option?

I usually lurk over here and post more at Malhavoc (just something I've noticed, no judgement on the community here) but I thought I'd point out a post my Mike Mearls over in the Malhavoc forums for Iron Lore (http://p222.ezboard.com/fokayyourturnfrm36.showMessage?topicID=21.topic) where he says (paraphrasing) that he ran out of space for developing unarmed combat styles in IL, but that an unarmed-oriented weapon master with improved unarmed strike ought to make a pretty playable martial artist as is. I imagine that the fighting styles he does have will also serve as a pretty good template if someone wanted to whip up some unarmed styles once the book hits shelves.

 

[Renshai]

Divine Magic and Deities

Mike,
I wanted to say that I'm very intrigued by Iron Lore so far, sounds like a really fun variant take on d20 fantasy.

One question, do you cover Divine magic or Deities in the book? Alot of good sword and sorcery tales include meddling gods and their devoted servants.

Thanks,
Ren

 

[ruleslawyer]

PCs have a heroic stature. They are stronger, smarter, and faster than normal - This I really don't like.

See, I LIKE this. In fact, it pretty strongly jibes with heroic fantasy tropes... and D&D IS a heroic fantasy RPG.

Moreover, how does this equate to the following?

...pcs throwing boulders and wrestling fire giants to the ground. Slaying the giant is cool, but a 6 foot human putting a giant in the camel clutch is a bit much.: